As violent Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, forcing a lockdown Wednesday, President-elect Joe Biden called on President Donald Trump to address the nation and urge peace.
"I call on President Trump to go on national television now, to fulfill his oath and defend the Constitution and demand an end to this siege,” Biden said.
“It’s not a protest – it's insurrection,” Biden said. He condemned what occurred at the Capitol and called those who stormed the building “extremists” who do not represent America. “At this hour, our democracy is under unprecedented assault, unlike anything we've seen in modern times. An assault on the citadel of liberty, the Capitol itself.”
“This is not decent, it’s disorder. It borders on sedition, and it must end. Now,” he said.
Shortly afterward, Trump released a minute-long video on Twitter, asking his supporters to “go home.” The president, however, began his video message by repeating unsubstantiated claims that the election was “stolen.”
Twitter has prevented liking and sharing of Trump’s tweet, saying that its claims were fraudulent and that it incited violence. Facebook and YouTube also removed the video from their platforms, saying it continued to make baseless claims that the election was fraudulent.
Guy Rosen, Facebook's vice president of integrity, said in a tweet that the social media company had removed the video because "on balance we believe it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence."
“We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide and everyone knows it – especially the other side — but you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order,” Trump said. There is no evidence to support Trump’s claims that he won the election.
His comments followed an unprecedented breach of Congress' security when hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, forcing a lockdown of the area as Congress was in the process of certifying Biden’s victory.
Biden, who spoke to reporters in Wilmington, Delaware, said, “The work of the moment and the work of the next four years must be the restoration of democracy, of decency, of honor, of respect, the rule of law.
“Just plain, simple decency. The renewal of a politics that's about solving problems, looking out for one another, not stoking the flames of hate and chaos,” he said.
